With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back

Edward P. Lowry

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• Publié par: enkou
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 28
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, With the
Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to
Koomati Poort and Back, by Edward P.
Lowry
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Title: With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back
Author: Edward P. Lowry
Release Date: April 22, 2008 [eBook #25135]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH THE GUARDS'
BRIGADE FROM BLOEMFONTEIN TO KOOMATI POORT AND BACK***
E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Christine P. Travers,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
Transcriber's Note:
Page 122: "After the treasure ship Hermione had thus been secured off
Cadiz by the Actæan and the Favorite" should probably be "After the
treasure ship Hermione had thus been secured off Cadiz by the Active and
the Favorite".

From a photograph by Deale, Blomfontein
Rev. E. P. LOWRY.
WITH THE
GUARDS' BRIGADE
FROM BLOEMFONTEIN
TO KOOMATI POORT AND BACK
BY THE
REV. E. P. LOWRY
SENIOR WESLEYAN CHAPLAIN WITH THE SOUTH AFRICAN FIELD FORCE

London
HORACE MARSHALL & SON
TEMPLE HOUSE, TEMPLE AVENUE, E.C.
1902
TO
THE OFFICERS,
NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, AND MEN
OF THE GUARDS' BRIGADE
THIS IMPERFECT RECORD OF THEIR HEROIC DARING, AND OF
THEIR YET MORE HEROIC ENDURANCE IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
IN TOKEN OF SINCEREST ADMIRATION, AND IN GRATEFUL
APPRECIATION OF NUMBERLESS COURTESIES RECEIVED
BY ONE OF THEIR FELLOW TRAVELLERS AND
CHAPLAINS THROUGHOUT THE BOER
WAR OF 1899-1902
PREFACE
The story of my long tramp with the Guards' Brigade was in part told through a
series of letters that appeared in The Methodist Recorder, The Methodist Times, and
other papers. The first portion of that series was republished in "Chaplains in Khaki,"
as also extensive selections in "From Aldershot to Pretoria." In this volume,
therefore, to avoid needless repetition, the story begins with our triumphal
occupation of Bloemfontein, and is continued till after the time of the breaking-up of
the Guards' Brigade.
No one will expect from a chaplain a technical and critical account of the
complicated military operations he witnessed at the seat of war. For that he has no
qualifications. Nor, on the other hand, would it be quite satisfactory if he wrote only
of what the chaplains and other Christian workers were themselves privileged to do
in connection with the war. That would necessitate great sameness, if not great
tameness. These pages are rather intended to set forth the many-sided life of our
soldiers on active service, their privations and perils, their failings and their
heroisms, their rare endurance, and in some cases their unfeigned piety; that all may
see what manner of men they were who in so many instances laid down their lives
in the defence of the empire; and amid what stupendous difficulties they
endeavoured to do their duty.
We owe it to the fact that these men have volunteered in such numbers for military
service that Britain alone of all European nations has thus far escaped the curse ofthe conscription. In that sense, therefore, they are the saviours and substitutes of the
entire manhood of our nation. If they had not consented of their own accord to step
into the breach, every able Englishman now at his desk, behind his counter, or
toiling at his bench, must have run the risk of having had so to do. We owe to these
men more than we have ever realised. It is but right, therefore, that more than ever
they should henceforth live in an atmosphere of grateful kindliness, of Christian
sympathy and effort.
"God bless you, Tommy Atkins,
Here's your country's love to you!"
My authorities for the statements made in the introductory chapter are Fitzpatrick's
"Pretoria from Within," and Martineau's "Life of Sir Bartle Frere." For the verifying or
correcting of my own facts and figures, given later on, I have consulted Conan
Doyle's "The Great Boer War," Stott's "The Invasion of Natal," and almost all other
available literature relating to the subject.
Edward P. Lowry.
Pretoria, March 1902.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
PAGE
The Ultimatum and what led to it 1
Two Notable Dreamers—A Bankrupt Republic—The Man who
Schemed as well as Dreamed—The Gold Plague—Hated
Johannesburg—Boer preparations for War—Coming events cast
their shadows before—The Ultimatum—The Rallying of the Clans
—The Rousing of the Colonies.
CHAPTER I
On the way to Bloemfontein, and in it! 14
A capital little Capital—Famished Men and Famine Prices—
Republican Commandeering—A Touching Story—The Price of
Milk.
CHAPTER II
A Long Halt 24
Refits—Remounts—Regimental Pets—Civilian Hospitality and
Soldiers' Homes—Soldiers' Christian Association Work—Rudyard
Kipling's Mistake—All Fools' Day—Eastertide in Bloemfontein—
The Epidemic and the Hospitals—All hands and houses to therescue—A sad sample of Enteric—Church of England Chaplains at
work.
CHAPTER III
Through Worlds Unknown and from Worlds Unknown 45
A Pleasure Jaunt—Onwards, but Whither!—That Pom-Pom again
—A Problem not quite solved—A Touching Sight—Rifle Firing and
Firing Farms—Boer Treachery and the White Flag—The Pet Lamb
still lives and learns—Right about face—From Worlds Unknown—
The Bushmen and their Australian Chaplains.
CHAPTER IV
Quick March to the Transvaal 57
A Comedy—A Tragedy—A Wide Front and a Resistless Force—
Brandfort—"Stop the War" Slanders—A Prisoner who tried to be a
Poet—Militant Dutch Reformed Predikants—Our Australian
Chaplain's pastoral experiences—The Welsh Chaplain.
CHAPTER V
To the Valsch River and the Vaal 70
The Sand River Convention—Railway Wrecking and Repairing—
The Tale, and Tails, of a Singed Overcoat—Lord Roberts as
Hospital Visitor—President Steyn's Sjambok—A Sunday at last that
was also a Sabbath—Military Police on the March—A General's
glowing eulogy of the Guards—Good News by the way—Over the
Vaal at last.
CHAPTER VI
A Chapter about Chaplains 88
A Chaplain who found the Base became the Front—Pathetic
Scenes in Hospital—A Battlefield Scene no less Pathetic—Look on
this Picture, and on that—A third-class Chaplain who proved a first-
rate Chaplain—Running in the Wrong Man—A Wainman who
proved a real Waggoner—Three bedfellows in a barn—A fourth-
class Chaplain that was also a first-rate Chaplain—A Parson
Prisoner in the hands of the Boers—Caring for the Wounded—How
the Chaplain's own Tent was bullet-riddled—A Sample Set of
Sunday Services.
CHAPTER VII
The Helpful Work of the Officiating Clergy 103
At Cape Town and Wynberg—Saved from Drowning to sink in
Hospital—A Pleasant Surprise—The Soldiers' ReceptionCommittee—The other way about—Our near kinship to the Boers—
More good Work on our right Flank.
CHAPTER VIII
Getting to the Golden City 113
An elaborate night toilet—Capturing Clapham Junction—Dear diet
and dangerous—No Wages but the Sjambok—The Gold Mines—
The Soldiers' Share—The Golden City—Astonishing the Natives.
CHAPTER IX
Pretoria—the City of Roses 127
Whit-Monday and Wet Tuesday—"Light after Dark"—Why the
Surrender?—Taking Possession—"Resurgam"—A Striking
Incident—No Canteens and no Crime.
CHAPTER X
Pretorian Incidents and Impressions 142
The State's Model School—Rev. Adrian Hoffmeyer—The Waterfall
Prisoners—A Soldier's Hymn—A big Supper Party—The Soldiers'
Home—Mr and Mrs Osborn Howe—A Letter from Lord Kitchener—
Also from Lord Roberts—A Song in praise of De Wet—Cordua and
his Conspiracy—Hospital Work in Pretoria—The Wear and Tear of
War—The Nursing Sisters—A Surprise Packet—Soldierly
Gratitude—The Ladysmith Lyre.
CHAPTER XI
From Pretoria to Belfast 169
The Boer way of saying "Bosh"—News from a far Country—Further
fighting—Touch not, taste not, handle not—More Treachery and still
more—The root of the matter—A Tight Fit—Obstructives on the Rail
—Middleburg and the Doppers—August Bank Holiday—Blowing
up Trains—A peculiar Mothers' Meeting—Aggressive Ladies—A
Dutch Deacon's Testimony—A German Officer's Testimony.
CHAPTER XII
Through Helvetia 190
The Fighting near Belfast—Feeding under Fire—A German
Doctor's Confession—Friends in need are Friends indeed—The
Invisible Sniper's Triumph